Good hotels deals in Canada, US and elsewhere with BA / Fairmont promotion

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• Lux says:

  25 Jan25 January 06:34

  I never understood why there are three hotels in Cairo, but they are pretty good (and new) – the one in Heliopolis is very handy for the airport, on a good night it was twenty minutes from aircraft doors opening to hotel reception desk.

• mark2 says:

  25 Jan25 January 09:06

  The Canadian hotels started off as part of Canadian Pacific railway and were then split off as CP Hotels. CP Hotels then bought Fairmont and (surprisingly to me) rebranded them all as Fairmont. I have stayed at Chateau Lake Louise and called at Banff. Lake Louise is an amazing spot and the hotel is quite good. Personally I much prefer Chateau Montebello, a 300 room log cabin in the forest half way between Montreal and Ottawa with a 20 square mile area of forest to roam over. A few miles down the road is Parc Omega which is a must with children (or borrow some if necessary). I am purely a leisure traveller and this is the only hotel where I have stayed twice, and would be happy to stay there again in Sept except that you need a car. Another excellent hotel in the group is Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City where we stayed in 95 and will stay again this year.

  If you join the President’s club (free) you will get this type of offer on a regular basis. In 2012 we had a third night free at Montebello.

• mark2 says:

  25 Jan25 January 09:07

  For US readers there is a Fairmont credit card which gives you free nights if you spend.

• flyforfun says:

  25 Jan25 January 09:29

  I’ve booked the Lake Louise hotel as part of a tour organised through a travel agent. Only there 1 night so no discount (3rd night free offer there) but can get them to add my BA Exec number to the booking and get the Avios for it?

  Is there any benefit to joining the President’s Club as a one off? Not sure my future travel plans would encompass this type of hotel again.

  • Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

    25 Jan25 January 09:37

    I signed up to FPC when I was on a similar tour. Worth it for free internet, newspaper and shoeshine (in city hotels). I even got stay credit, but no Avios.

    Lake Louise was great. They’ve got a nice restaurant overlooking the lake. Worth making a reservation at check in. Have fun – you can live like a king if the exchange rate holds at 1.85.

    • flyforfun says:

      25 Jan25 January 10:20

      Thanks! Hadn’t seen the bit about free internet access. You almost expect it free in most quality hotels these days.

      I “upgraded” my Lake Louise hotel room from Mountain to Lake View for around £40. Will explore the restaurant menu and options. Was your tour pretty full on? Almost imagine we’d be crawling to the nearest eatery and then going back to the room to sleep! Hmm. Maybe upgrading wasn’t such a good idea!!

      • mark2 says:

        25 Jan25 January 10:38

        In a lake view room make sure that you set your alarm to watch the sun rise over the glacier at the end of the lake. A walk around the lake is also worthwhile for the rocks and the wildlife.

      • mark2 says:

        25 Jan25 January 10:57

        Total Sales Tax in Alberta is only 5% against 13% in most provinces so is the place to make major purchases.

        • flyforfun says:

          25 Jan25 January 12:01

          Ohh! Another plus! The main thing I buy when in the US is Levis because they are around 1/3 the price of the ones on sale in the UK. Also they have “half” sizes I don’t find here (ie 33″ waist). I’m going to Jasper, Lake Louise and Banff. Sears or JC Penny in the US has been where I normally find then really cheap. Are there outlets in those towns?

        • Rob says:

          25 Jan25 January 14:15

          I found that Spain did odd trouser sizes when I was there last year – not sure if it is all brands or just those I looked at.

        • mark2 says:

          25 Jan25 January 18:43

          Lake Louise is a village and Banff a small town. I have not been to Jasper.

      • Alan says:

        25 Jan25 January 12:00

        I’d say the opposite actually, it tends to be the hotels at the cheaper end of the market that have free WiFi, the more expensive ones tended to charge – that seems to be slowly changing though, see the recent Hyatt announcement.

        • flyforfun says:

          25 Jan25 January 12:14

          Did Travelodge and Premier Inn in Scotland last year and they only gave 30 mins free per day (lucky we had phone and tablets to keep moving on to!). The dearer hotels in Glasgow and Edinburgh were free.

          I know that some hotel chains locked them selves into long term deals with suppliers and have no option but to charge. Given that even some mobile phone companies offer cheaper international roaming rates ( eg 3, free in some countries, Vodafone £3 per day – all using your own allowance of course), I wonder how much longer hotels will charge. Even the company that I used to work for providing serviced offices went to the free model because of competition.

          I can understand paying more for high speed access though.

        • Alan says:

          25 Jan25 January 12:17

          Does seem a bit of a mixed bag! I’m used to Hilton and Accor where I only get it free thanks to status. IHG now free for all but pretty much unusable at a lot of their properties – hopefully most will move to free for all but reasonably priced for faster service/free upgrade for those with status.

• Imbruce says:

  25 Jan25 January 09:49

  The Fairmont Brand in Australia is part of the Le Accor Hotels group and not part of this promotion.

  • Head for Points says:

    25 Jan25 January 10:27

    Thanks, never knew that!

• Mike says:

  25 Jan25 January 13:01

  As Mark2 has said, other properties are also quite nice in Canada. The Fairmont Dubai is nice – they have a signature “smell” / “bouquet” which we find quite unique. The concierge actually has the recipe! The one in Abu Dhabi is good but ask for rooms facing the mosque

  Read somewhere that the Fairmont Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City is the most photographed hotel in the world!

  • mark2 says:

    25 Jan25 January 18:42

    Each Canadian hotel has a dog who hangs out in the lobby and accompanies the manager to meetings.
    .

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